Bylined opinion and news columns published by United Hebrew Congregation Terre Haute.
Are you ready for the High Holy Days?
I don’t mean, are you cleaning the house and cooking for friends and family. I mean, are you doing the work of accounting of the soul in chesbon hanefesh?
Accounting of the soul is hard work but allows us to reflect on actions during the past year.
Elul is an intense month! We’re gearing up for the High Holy Days, and in order to prepare ourselves, we have certain rituals that we carry out during this time.
We perform teshuvah, the process of making amends to our fellow humans whom we have wronged during the course of the year.
We undertake a cheshbon hanefesh, an accounting of our souls, where we assess how we measured up during the year.
We look inward to determine where we excelled and where we fell short. We read Psalm 27, in which the psalmist asks to dwell with G-d. And, of course, we hear the shofar.
As the academic year ends for our students in K-12 and college, I’ve started to think about all the hope and talents these students possess.
But developing talents doesn’t end with formal schooling.
So, what are your talents?
I know our congregation is filled with many talented people. First, Student Rabbi Rocki Schy offers succinct homilies, is a pro when reading Torah, and conducts well-organized and informative Torah studies.
With Pesach and Shavuot now concluded, we’ve completed the period of the Jewish calendar during which we count the omer.
This ancient timekeeping mechanism finds new life each year as we number the days in between these two holidays. In ancient times, we used an actual omer — a piece of barley — to track the days between these chaggim, while worshipers traveled to the Temple.
Today, the counting of the omer is a more symbolic practice. We keep a mental tally, rather than a pile of barley.